BRT

Chi Dooh Li said:

The vocal anti-rail crowd owes us all a public apology, because the biggest boondoggle over the past four decades is the many tens of billions we have poured into transportation solutions that have failed to handle the traffic growth in this region.

Yet opponents of light rail want us to continue believing that “bus rapid transit” is the answer to congestion. I bet they have some snake oil to sell us too.

So what’s the vision of BRT locally? As Martin points out, Ron Sims’ fancy new Rapid Ride plan is available now. Here’s Martin:

It seems awful repetitive to run BRT down the exact route that light rail is planning to use. It leaves us with several awful or doubtful alternatives:
– light rail is permanently trashed in favor of inferior BRT technology that also forces a transfer at SeaTac to connect with the rest of the system.
– the BRT is constructed to be rail convertible. I’m doubtful this is happening, and at any rate would create a big fight if it involved suspending existing BRT to lay track.
– The Rapid Ride investments will be abandoned when light rail arrives, or they will run simultaneously. That would get us one transit corridor for the price of two! Nice job Metro!

Yup.

Martin again:

Is it an accident that the portion of Transit Now that most duplicates ST2 is the first to be released, just before the ballot!

No I don’t think it is an accident. Ron Sims wants transit dollars spent on his bus system, and he knows he’s more likely to get that FTA position in a democratic cabinet if he pushes his BRT down our throats.

Damn that’s a scary thought, isn’t it? Mr BRT in charge of the FTA?

Yikes.

I’m heading down to LA this weekend. I’ll be checking out their Orange Line BRT, and their rail systems. Should be fun!